Women’s Work Theme Analysis

The men in Out of This Furnace work in the steel mills, while the women tend to homemaking and childrearing. Bell makes clear that domestic work is just as backbreaking and stress-inducing as work in the furnaces. Unlike millwork, which at least comes with downturns, women’s work has no breaks: it is a full-time job, seven days a week. In addition, because work in the mills is so dangerous, the very real potential of losing a husband leaves women to bear the burden of running a full household without their husband’s wages. Nevertheless, men’s failure to appreciate women’s work damages the familial, social, and professional lives of the characters in the novel. Conversely, when male characters do recognize women’s work, this recognition leads to a mutually beneficial relationship and provides a foundation on which to build stable lives.

Bell emphasizes that women’s work is just that: work. Women must constantly work to keep some semblance of a stable “home,” a task that falls to them alone. The duties of an immigrant laborers’ wife hits Elena especially hard. “Women had a hard time of it,” Dubik tells Kracha, “she had to work hard cooking, washing, scrubbing; and what pleasure did she ever get?” The pressure of household work leaves Elena in a deep depression. Dorta is widowed with children and serves as a surrogate nanny/maid for Kracha, Elena, Mike, and Mary. Even before her husband Dubik’s death, Dorta performs her household duties alone thanks to his all-consuming work schedule. Like many Slovak women, she also takes in boarders, thereby multiplying the amount of cooking, laundry, and cleaning she must do alongside childrearing. Mary also takes in boarders to supplement her husband Mike’s meager wages. Taking in boarders means “running a business” full time. Between cooking, washing, and cleaning for the family and the boarders, “her hours were from four-thirty in the morning to nine at night, seven days a week.” Through these examples, Bell shows how women’s work is every bit as exhausting as men’s work in the mills.

Despite the hard work that women perform, men and society often take it for grated or even dismiss it outright. This underappreciation of women’s work negatively affects women and their families. For instance, Kracha is indifferent to Elena’s suffering, reasoning that life is hard for everyone. He ultimately views her as a domestic employee. “She took care of the house and the children and he looked after the shop,” Bell writes. Kracha’s actions show that dismissing women’s work damages family wellbeing. Resenting Elena’s lack of intimacy, Kracha has an affair with Zuska, which costs him butcher-shop customers and allows Zuska to steal his savings, forcing him back into the mill. Kracha’s behavior leads to financial ruin and distances him from his children, who come to see him as a boarder rather than a father. Mary’s workload continues after Mike’s death, as the household labor of raising four children leaves Mary no time to mourn him. Mary must also take on more work via domestic jobs for others, and she deals with widowhood and the indifference it inspires. “For a few days everybody is sorry for you,” she tells Dorta, “after that you're just another widow […] widows are nothing." Being a widow is hard enough, Mary realizes, without the psychological toll that comes with social indifference. The stress of widowhood sends Mary to the sanitarium, where she dies “a pointless death among strangers.” Her children are left to be raised by extended family, schools, and employers, revealing the social ramifications of undervaluing women’s work.

By contrast, the relationship between Dobie and Julie underscores how a partnership that values women’s work is beneficial not only to couples, but to families and society in general. Julie’s homemaking keeps the house a refuge for Dobie, and she even becomes a caretaker for Kracha. Julie emphasizes how her domestic work contributes to everyone’s wellbeing. “We need so many things,” she tells Dobie, “if you want to live nice.” By emphasizing the importance of her housework, and by connecting that work to Dobie’s paycheck via buying appliances like refrigerators, Julie shows how she and Dobie’s happiness depends on the recognition that their marriage is a true partnership. Julie is also Dobie’s closest confidant, and she knows that her work is vital. “I deserve a little consideration,” she tells Mike, before asking him not to be out too often, and Dobie agrees with her. Here, Bell shows how the combination of physical and emotional labor on Julie’s part supports Dobie in his work and buttresses their marriage. Julie and Dobie share and discuss their household on an equal footing. They shop for furniture and appliances together and make joint plans for the future. Julie runs the household while Dobie works in the mill, but Dobie also contributes to the home by discussing household decisions with Julie. They share concerns and make decisions together, thereby supporting each other through the difficulties of working-class life in Braddock.

In Out of This Furnace, Bells details how women’s work is just as hard and important as that of men. In subtitling his book A Novel of Immigrant Labor in America, Bell indicates that his story is about how work, regardless of gender, shapes the lives of Slovaks in Braddock. Dismissing women’s work has significant personal, social, and economic ramifications for the novel’s characters. As Dobie’s story shows, however, recognizing women’s work bolsters healthy marriages and families, creating profound benefits that extend well outside the home.